There was a lot to like about our performance
Burnley were held to a 0-0 draw by Reading today and it was a point that home manager Brian McDermott claimed as a point gained after holding a team as good as Burnley.
Speaking after the game, he said: “It’s another clean sheet against a team who will probably be playing in the Premier League next season. They’ve got a good chance. They know what they’re doing. They turned us round early on and there’s a certain formula you need to get out of this league and they might have it.
“They’ve got players who can score, they put five past MK Dons on the road, three past Brentford away, but I thought we might nick that game. To get a 0-0 here though, we’ll take that today.
“When you’re playing a top team like Burnley, it’s got to be a point gained. The players showed real resilience, fighting for everything, going into every tackle. There were some great battles going on all over the pitch.
“No one was giving an inch in a real tough Championship game. Once again our players stood up to them and it could have gone either way.”
Speaking about the penalty incident, he added: “Ali said to me he hadn’t touched him, so we don’t think it was a penalty. And the goalkeeper has had to make a fabulous save from the penalty and there was a great reaction from the fans when he made it. Ali’s done really well for us again today, so I’m delighted for him.
“I’m proud of all our efforts today. We’re inching towards where we want to get to, we showed the resilience I wanted to see, kept a clean sheet, and now we just need to add the goals to those clean sheets.
“You have to match teams, especially teams like Burnley. They are the top scorers in the Championship and we’re just trying to build going forward. Now we can look forward to a good week’s training and then meeting West Brom in the FA Cup here.”
Sean Dyche was angry over the incident once the penalty had been given that led to Reading’s Hal Robson-Kanu receiving a yellow card after scuffing the penalty spot.
“I have only seen it live (the award of the penalty) and it looks like a penalty to me from where I am. The melee afterwards can sometimes happen in games, but their player (Robson-Kanu) then kicks up the penalty spot.
“That’s something I have never seen before in a football match and I hope never to see again. I would certainly not want my players conducting themselves in that manner. It’s unacceptable, as simple as that.
“That is pushing gamesmanship too far for me and I don’t know what their view of it would be, but if I saw one of my players doing that, then I would make sure they knew that’s not how we go about our business.”
Andre Gray saw his penalty saved and Dyche added: “I’m almost sure the goalkeeper then comes off his line before Andre hits it and that’s another detail, but unfortunately it counted because he narrowed the angle and made the save.”
Gray was very much the talking point after the game, missing a couple of other chances as well as failing from the penalty spot. Dyche said: “Andre’s movement for the first chance is terrific and if he puts it anywhere else, it’s a goal. The second one, I think McShane gets a touch before him and he get s a luck one as it spins just past the post.
“Overall, we created three or four really good chances and kept them down to very little in the way of clear chances.
“They have only lost three at home, so they are obviously no mugs. The surface didn’t help and that’s as bad as we’ve seen, for both sides, I must make it clear, which made it tough for both teams.
“There was a lot to like about our performance today, again superbly supported by our fans travelling in numbers and if we’d come away with the win I think everyone would have said that was about right.
“We didn’t but there were so many positives to our play today and we go away with another good point and a clean sheet on the road.”
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